CHAPTER 57
As Seth and Kyra neared the shore the jungle floor became sandy. The foliage thinned out and stopped where the ground took a sharp slope down to the open beach. The creek spilled over a steep ledge of lava rock, where it poured into a shallow pool before flushing across the sand and into the rolling waves. Kyra and Seth stood at the edge of the waterfall and took in the scene.
Although the sand on the beach looked soft there were many boulder sized chunks and spires of lava rock pushing up through it. The water looked choppy and unfriendly. Several hundred feet out there was a small island with sparse trees growing out of its rocky face. Several hundred more feet out there was something else, but Seth couldn't figure out what it was. It looked like a sturdy pillar of concrete rising out of the ocean, the kind that would hold up a bridge, only it appeared to be many times larger. As his eyes focused outward he saw that there were many more of them, all arranged in a line that curved back toward the beach in a semicircle that eventually met with the shore and the crater rim. Between the pillars was a mesh of cable and wires, some as thick as those that suspended bridges.
Seth craned his neck back to take in the entire structure. It stretched hundreds, if not thousands of feet above them. Seth nearly fell backwards looking at it.
Kyra said, "it's a ptero-dome."
"A what-a-dome?"
"It's like a birdcage for pterosaurs. You know, like pterodactyls. There's one on the interior of the island. They use it to house pteranodons. I didn't know there were two of them though."
Seth's gaze panned from one end of the dome to another. He'd never seen a structure quite like it. The fact that it stretched out into the ocean made the massive cage all the more fantastic. "What do we do now?" he asked.
As if to answer his question Seth heard a quiet whirr behind and above him. It sounded like a small electric motor. Both he and Kyra turned and looked upward. Amidst the trees they spotted a tall metal post with a video camera mounted at the top. As the whirring continued its lens swept from left to right and then up and down.
"Perfect!" Kyra clapped her hands with a grin. She started waving her arms and jumping as high as she could. "Hey! Over here! Hey!"
Seth joined in, doing just like she was. As they worked to gain the camera's attention the lens proceeded to complete three more cycles of sweeping the ptero-dome. Halfway through the fourth repetition it froze. Seth and Kyra stopped jumping but still held their arms up.
"Do you think they see us?" Seth squinted his eyes at the camera.
"I think so. I don't know." Kyra waved her hands some more. "Help." She exaggerated the movement of her lips, hoping someone on the other side would interpret it.
The camera remained still. Seth dropped his arms. "Come on, guys."
Kyra shook her head and repeated, "I don't know." A moment later she said again, "I don't know."
Then the camera angled down directly at them.
Seth felt a rush of hope. "Whoa."
Kyra was feeling the same thing. "Maybe?"
The lens adjusted and focused, then remained on them.
Kyra mouthed at the camera with grand lip movements. "Can you see us?" She nodded her head as she said it.
A couple of seconds later the camera nodded up and down with stiff robotic movement.
"Yes!"
Kyra and Seth were ecstatic.
"They're coming to get us, Seth!"
Seth laughed. He remembered how the whole thing had started because they'd snuck out of the village and gone to places they knew they weren't supposed to. He knew his mom was going to be livid with him. As much as he was happy to be getting rescued his face sank a little. "Our parents are gonna kill us."